Minnesota has been consistently last in recognizing its homegrown stars. Prince was a household name in the U.S. and in many parts of Europe before any of our local stations played his records. The award-winning Terry Lewis and Jimmy Jam, the 1986 Producers of the Year and probably the recording industry"s most sought after producers, are less known here than Crazy George!

Calvin Klein is not from Minneapolis, Minnesota and neither is Picasso; Shadia Dianne Ouma is. Perhaps one of America's top Leather Designer's, according to Deb Kitchner owner of Dangerous Threads in Nashville Tn.

Shadia has been measuring, cutting, tailoring burning and beading designs on leather and into the hearts of leather lovers across the country. Renaissance Festival goes who have visited the Minnesota Festival for the past 30 years, the Texas R. F. the last 25 years, and Chicago-Bristol R.F. the past 26 years, have had the good fortune to be able to purchase her inspired creations. Shadia says that her inspirations come from dreams, visions, nature, and instantaneous flashs, in which she sees rhe entire garment in an instant!

Shadia attended Minneapolis Technical College where she learned various fine tailoring techniques. This with her intuitive nature and talent, she has created some of the most eye-catching leather garments,bags, three dimentional sculptures, and cape/wall hangings. Although she has has made garments and bags for people in the limelight, such as Joni Mitchel, she declines to regard her work as fashion. "I am not a fashion designer," she says. "I am creator of wearable art." This is undisputed considering that 150 hours went into making a Joni Mitchle's first coat. The lush green coatwith double hand braided edges, all the seams were hand braided, with quilted tiger lilies flowing through out the coat, Joni's favorite flower from her native Saskatchewan. When Joni was presented with the coat personally by Shadia in Joni's home in Bel Air, Joni gave her a very generous tip and said that she will be honored to own such a work of art.

Although her artwork is inspired by the enveroment and influenced by her travels in Africa, Hawii, Mexico, Spain , Egypt and America, it is difficult to pinpoint any one influence on her creations. She employs a variety of techniques to creat her visions, her favourite leathers include deer skin, elk, cowhide and cabretta. She declines to use lambskin, 'I do not use lambskins," she says. "It would be a shame to spend so many hours of labor to see it last only a couple of years." She strongly believes a leather garment should look and feel better with age and should accentuate a person,s physical attributes while de-emphasizing figure problems. She enjoys creating special power pieces for clients and also classic designs for the ones not ready to be the center of attention.

Over the many years of devotion to her craft, she has compiled an impressive portfolio which has enabled her to open doors around the country, not only does she sell to the much celebrated Romancing the Range in Houston Tx., but she has also landed orders from exclusive stores , Dangerous Threads Nashville Tn., Ann Hartleys in Dallas, to mention a few.

Shadia's life has not been all leather designing, she is also a wife and mother. Along with her passion for designing is her passion for dance, as a celebrated Oriental (belly dancer) and director, choreographer of Raks Bedawi a Middle Eastern Folkloric dance troupe which performs in various venues from Theaters , Colleges, Community Events and Restraunts She is also a professional African dancer, and has been developing her own fusion style of Flamenco and Egyption Dance. She has a daily yoga practice that helps her maintain a peaceful balance and the calmness I need to create.